Discourse and SSDS



  • As a long time follower of both this site and @codinghorror's blog, I wanted to add my peso's worth of opinion on this whole Discourse thing. I apologize in advance if anything I bring up here has been hashed out already elsewhere, but I actually find posts on Discourse to be more confusingly disorganized than with CS.

    I wanted to point out to @codinghorror that your responses to the community here in regards to the things the community wants has been SpectateSwamp-ish. Not quite at that level, but not far removed either, as though you spent some time at the SwampShack and started jamming noodles together. Reading your responses basically saying your paradigm is "the One True Way" really is no different than SpectateSwamp's (albeit, yours is more eloquent and comprehensible). I'm not going to go through and locate the actual messages I'm referring to, as apparently one needs a PhD in Discourse Science and Philosophy to do anything even remotely more complex than reading on here. Infini-scroll being an obvious one, and it's great that it works for your paradigm of this community, but I would have expected you to also understand that there are other equally valid paradigms that don't share your enthusiasm for infini-scroll. Your reasonings and validations for why infini-scroll is the best way forward are great for you, but aren't necessarily valid for everyone. Further, they reek of general observations of forum communities in general, and not necessarily true of the community here.

    Another topic I wanted to bring up is the anonymous postings as it impacts me directly. I dunno if something's being hashed out on that or not, because I'm not going to read through every topic to try to figure that out. While I do have an actual account on this site, due to work-place restrictions, I'm not allowed to actually login to it while at work so this fact alone would mean I will not be allowed to participate in the conversations going forward. And no, I don't use this site at home, because that's my time to escape computers altogether. Anyway, you had posted something to the effect that anonymous posting is a barrier to conversation. Again, that may be a valid general observation of general communities at large, but this site has a long history of anonymous postings that counterpoint what you are saying for this specific community. IF this were a new community being established, I would consider your point a valid point to bring up to decide not to allow it. But for this community, a well-established community, general observations about general communities is rather meaningless when there is specific observables specific to this community. It seems to me like trying to tell everyone in NYC they need to buy a car when they are satisfied with the other transportation options at their disposal because "cars are more conducive to getting you where you need to go" (BTW, I'm not saying everyone or necessarily anyone in NYC is happy with the transportation systems available to them as I don't live in nor do I know anyone living in NYC, but I imagine the thought of having to drive anywhere for anyone living in NYC is a nightmare).

    Anyway, I'm rambling because I'm already at home (so I could register a new throwaway account so I could post this) and my mind isn't functioning at even 1% capacity right now.

    So, TL; DR: Is Discourse the new SSDS?


  • Banned

    We have had a number of requests, from a number of different audiences, for a "post anonymously" mode. However, you'd still need to be logged in -- this is just a proposed mode where you opt in to posting anonymously for a single post (or topic) at the time of posting.

    This is something I think has value, and I do want to get to.



  • OP is requesting the ability to post, without having to log in, owing to some restrictions or monitoring by their pinhead employer.

    I know that opens the forums to spam, but there are other ways to control the problem:

    • Community members can flag, tag, and bag useless messages, perhaps even contributing to blacklisting of spamful IP addresses
    • Forum owner can set minimum level of security (because they might not have a choice about it), but within that constraint, community members should be able to upvote or downvote, basically modifying what levels of anonymity are acceptable to that community


  • @ThrowAway said:

    . I'm not going to go through and locate the actual messages I'm referring to,

    I've even made that point. It still stands.

    @codinghorror said:

    a proposed mode where you opt in to posting anonymously for a single post (or topic) at the time of posting.

    So, a "troll" mode. Because I don't see any other uses than cowardly starting a flame war.

    Most people post anonymously not because of some desire of anonymity, but because it's more convenient not to have to sign up and log in every time.


  • Considered Harmful

    @Maciejasjmj said:

    So, a "troll" mode. Because I don't see any other uses than cowardly starting a flame war.

    We already have that. Everyone has the password to the Nagesh account so we don't have to post with our own.



  • @error said:

    We already have that. Everyone has the password to the Nagesh account so we don't have to post with our own.

    And none of you has yet changed this goddamn avatar?



  • @Maciejasjmj said:

    So, a "troll" mode. Because I don't see any other uses than cowardly starting a flame war.

    Most people post anonymously not because of some desire of anonymity, but because it's more convenient not to have to sign up and log in every time.

    analogous to "Anonymous Coward" on slashdot

    maybe have all anonymous posts come from "Pedantic Troll"


  • BINNED

    @chubertdev said:

    maybe have all anonymous posts come from "Pedantic TrollDickweed"

    FTFY


    Filed under: Feature request: keyboard shortcut that brings up menu with FTFY, TDEMSYR, Pink dildo...


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @apapadimoulis has plans to allow anonymous comments on front page articles, just like it's always been. The forums will remain as they have been too, requiring log ins.

    http://what.thedailywtf.com/t/front-page-comments-idea/620


  • Considered Harmful

    @Onyx said:

    Pink dildo...

    Pervert! At TDWTF, our dildos have always been purple!


    Filed under: Like God intended.


  • BINNED

    I have subjected myself to self-flagellation in order to atone for my sins.



  • @error said:

    We already have that. Everyone has the password to the Nagesh account so we don't have to post with our own.

    Here is my password.

    F4eebi4dsa4esucke4sfo4u4anus!


  • Considered Harmful

    @Nagesh said:

    Here is my password.

    F4eebi4dsa4esucke4sfo4u4anus!

    Ugh, change it back to "gullible" and stop messing with it.



  • So, in my barely coherent, rambling state, I forgot to add I think Discourse (in general) seems so far like a decent platform, and I think it could eventually work for this community once various things have been ironed out. There have been very few things that I haven't particularly cared for about it. I was more surprised at some of the responses I was reading to input from the community here.


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